Down
1 Removing top ingredients from wealthy ruler, I’ve become profitable (9)
2 Hooks rule between banks of channels (5)
3 City story about new course with layers (7)
4 Distant era where Eloi sport between ends of night, heart of Sphinx, and the final cold (9)
5 What leads the Telegraph, Independent, Mail and Evening Standard? (5)
6 Ban “O take Me!” (as seen in The Mirror) (7)
7 Never! A pig to run The Telegraph? (9)
8 Tricky alternative for nurse (5)
14 A tabloid version of “Alfred the Great’s edicts” could be The Weakest Link? (5,4)
16 ‘R’ is for rock band? (9)
17 Sticking to the rules for being neighbourly (7,2)
19 Huntress clearing insiders before 5 rewrite (7)
20 Insect is fair game (7)
21 Plant fluid is risen? Not quite (5)
22 Put words in mouth of unknown, and get a president (5)
24 Finally – not almost finally – we hear the World Press’s onto him (5)

Across
1 Figure doctor turns away able-bodied (5)
2 Bird I found in silly chap-book, starting from the end (9)
8 Two soldiers almost shoot Californian popular at Christmas (5,3)
9 Discrimination shown by copper probing final utterance of supplicant (6)
11 Plug separator without a blended core (7)
12 Get bread from guy around lunchtime (7)
13 It could be found a cave? As used by bats? (4-8)
15 And yet always at least breaking even (12)
17 Particular emitter attacked solar power regularly (7)
18 Cry of discovery after almost everyone’s swallowing your poison (7)
19 Numbers from zero to 3.14159 sum approximately (6)
20 “Braveheart” to have Disney in the lead role with hands crossed (8)
21 Official: he loves things! (9)
22 Roger eating a lot of crumbs (5)

Down
1 Wise men (with glasses) boarding taxi to disclose secret of complex road junction (5,10)
2 Pop, say, backed Mom: eating uranium can be a cause of distress! (5)
3 Strange if Mrs Thatcher was heading off a distributor of largess (6,9)
4 Stop making coffee? (5,2,1,4)
5 Half-heartedly, I drop by wearing a flower (need to be earlier!) (15)
6 Partly overturned alibi has me mistrusting respected lady (8)
7 Rings aunts able to dance can-can earlier (15)
10 The classroom’s disrupted, but not by him (12)
14 More work arrives gradually? (8)
16 How extremities secured in harness make a striking sound (6)